UPDATED: 23 June, 2008
| Subject Gateways | Learning & Teaching | Data Services & Sets |
| Organisations | Archives & Libraries | Primary Sources |
| Journals | Bibliographies |
Humbul Description: A2A: The access to archives project intends to create an online national archives catalogue for England. This catalogue will bring together records of national, regional and local importance dating from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. The catalogue is being created at the Public Record Office and similar projects are being carried out in Wales and Scotland.
The database is updated regularly, and contains nearly six million catalogue entries from some 335 different record offices and other repositories. The catalogues themselves vary in the amount of detail they describe.
The search engine is quick and flexible, allowing various restrictions, wildcards, and Boolean expressions. Results are listed by archive, from the archive with the largest number of hits downward. Clicking on an archive will then bring up the catalogue headings in which the search name or phrase appears, along with details of where the record is held, its reference number, and (when available) the date of the record. Researchers may view the table of contents for each catalogue, as well as bringing up the entire text, although this may take some time in the case of the longer catalogues.
Current A2A strengths include: the history of British India and relationships with the wider world beyond Europe; science and politics in the 19th and 20th centuries; local government and the administration of justice in the English counties in the 16th-20th centuries; and the history of transport. The archives are likely to be especially useful to members of the general public who are trying to trace their family history, and to students researching local history or particular individuals. The site provides special advice pages for both groups of researchers. Also provided are a host of information about the project; about its aims, infrastructure and methodology, types of records to be included, news, work in progress etc. The web site also maintains a list of links relating to the project, standards, UK sites and other sites of interest.
Catalogued by: Institute of Historical Research (IHR)
Humbul Description: AIM25 is a project intended to provide electronic access to details of archives held by over fifty institutions (higher education and learned societies) in the greater London area. AIM25 will provide collection level descriptions for the entire archival holdings of the participating institutions. These descriptions will be provided for each collection or sub-grouping of larger collections, and might extend to series level in the case of institutional records. Interoperability is to be achieved by ensuring Z39.50 compliancy. In order to facilitate searching, AIM25 will be indexing their descriptions, which will enable searching via free text keywords, personal, corporate and place names and subject index. As well as searching it is possible to browse the records by repository. The AIM25 site has a useful list of links. The site is clearly structured and the project will, on completion, provide an extremely valuable resource. Over 5,000 detailed records have now been added to the catalogue.AIM25 receives funding from the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP).
Catalogued by: Institute of Historical Research (IHR)
Humbul Description: The UK Archives Hub is a national gateway providing free access to descriptions of archives held in UK universities and colleges. The service covers archives in over 75 academic institutions and is growing rapidly, with approximately 15,000 collection descriptions at present. The wide range of material has relevance to many areas of research and many collection descriptions are available for online for the first time. Initially records are collection level descriptions, however the long-term aim is to include access to multi-level descriptions, full text and digitised items where appropriate. This resource is freely available.
The Archives Hub receives funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). This resource is also described by the JISC Resource Guide for the Arts and Humanities.
Catalogued by: Humbul Staff
Humbul Description: This Web site is devoted to the Northern Ireland conflict from 1968 to the present. Based at the University of Ulster, CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) is a vast resource containing: background to the conflict - including information about the various Republican and Unionist parties involved, hunger strikes, internment, civil rights in Northern Ireland, and the peace process; information about Irish society (including economic, cultural, population and education details); explanations of key events, such as the UWC strike, 'Bloody Sunday' and the Omagh Bomb; theoretical models for studying conflict; and bibliographic resources. Although the site contains a great deal of material itself, it is also a gateway to other projects and research in the field of Northern Irish politics and conflict studies in general. The site is thus a vital network for historians.
Catalogued by: Mr Stuart Allen
http://modernrecords.warwick.ac.uk/ ![[external link]](../images/formatting/earbull.gif)
Humbul Description: The Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick has the aim of collecting and making sources for British political, social and economic history, in particular labour history, industrial relations and industrial politics, available for research. The web site of the Modern Records Centre provides summary information about the collections that it holds. The HTML summary guide has been divided into the following sections: trade unions and similar organisations, employers' and trade associations, industrial relations: general, pressure groups, political parties and organisations, business and management, individuals, education and training (excluding trade unions) and miscellaneous. Entries contain very brief descriptions of the archives with covering dates and reference numbers. These summary guides aim to provide an indication of the breadth and depth of the collections. The guide can also be viewed in SGML. Copies of the Centre's annual report from 1996-1997 onwards and their information bulletins from 1998 are available from the site. Other features of the web site include contact information, location details, rules, closure dates and information about the Centre's publications.
Catalogued by: Institute of Historical Research (IHR)
Humbul Description: The British Library produce a range of electronic bibliographic resources, both online and on CD-ROM. OPAC97 is a free online database which allows users to search for materials held in the major reference and document supply collections of the British Library. For certain materials held in the document supply collections, which include the world's largest collection of conference proceedings, and a vast collection of British and international periodicals, it is also possible to order copies of the documents online. Reference collections represented in OPAC include the Modern Books and Periodicals collection and the Humanities and Social Sciences collection (1975 to date).
Blaise Web is a subscription service that allows online searching of a comprehensive range of British Library catalogues and online databases. These include The British National Bibliography, 1950 to date, which contains bibliographic records, updated weekly, for books and first issues of serial titles published and forthcoming in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The Library of Congress, 1968 to date, Whitaker, 1965 to date, and ISSN UK Centre for Serials databases, plus the Stationery Office's own database of its government and official publications, are also available. Additionally, the vast catalogue of bibliographic records provided by the major departments of the British Library, including Humanities and Social Sciences, the Science Reference and Information Service, Oriental and India Office Collections, Music, Maps, and the Document Supply Centre can all be searched via Blaise Web. Shelfmarks indicating the item's location within the British Library are included on all these records. From within the site, copies of certain documents may be ordered from the Library's Document Supply Centre. Blaise Line currently offers rather more sophisticated access, via Telnet, to the same databases as are available through Blaise Web. Free text searches and complex searches using adjacency, proximity operators and Boolean logic are possible, and the format in which search records are displayed can be customized, for example as MARC records. Searches can be saved for future use and refinements. The British National Bibliography, described above, is also available on subscription on CD-ROM in twelve fully cumulated monthly issues. Additionally, databases of records of over 800,000 books collected by the Document Supply Centre since 1980 (Boston Spa Books), of the vast records of published conference proceedings collected by the Document Supply Centre (Boston Spa Conferences), and of over 500,000 serial records and holdings (Boston Spa Serials) are also available as stand-alone CD-ROMs. Inside Conferences is an annual series of back files (covering 1994 to 1998) available on CD-ROM which provides contents page level access, including author and paper details, to the collection of published conference proceedings held at the Document Supply Centre. Each annual back file contains details of approximately 500,000 conference papers. Inside Information is an annual series of back files (covering 1993-1996) on CD-ROM containing details from the contents pages of 10,000 journals, taken from the world-wide collection of 45,000 current subscriptions, held by the Document Supply Centre. These journals cover all subject fields and, between 1993 and 1996, were the most frequently requested journals held by the Centre. They represent 10,000 of the world's most important journals. The 'Inside' databases are now also accessible on-line to subscribers.
Catalogued by: Humbul Staff
Catalogue records supplied and maintained by Humbul Humanities Hub